Thursday, September 8, 2016

Col Alt is a killer climb from Rugolo to a World War II memorial. I've MTB'ed there before but decided to see if I could do it on Fedaia. From Sarmede I made it up to about 530 meters but then I was toast. After hyperventilating awhile I realized I wouldn't make it to the flat spot at 560 meters (turn off to Chiesetta Alpini) so I pushed. There I remounted and wobbled up the climb to end of pavement at 760 meters. As you know, the gravel road is even harder to climb, but I made it to the hiking path turn off at 776 meters. It's grassy single track so I tried to shoulder the 20 lb bike but I was too tired even for that, and had to push it. I reached the monument at 823 meters, sat down in the shade of the obelisk and ate a piece of cake a friend had given me. That revived me so I headed down. After a brief gravel stretch I reached Strada del Patriarche and coasted down to Villa di Villa and then pedaled home. Good challenge and I'll try again one day.